


Because I Care

by HinaSaku



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, F/F, Friendship, Gem Egg Hell, Gemlings, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:56:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9854894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HinaSaku/pseuds/HinaSaku
Summary: After getting separated from Jasper, Peridot finds herself teaming up with the Crystal Gems to take out the Cluster. Meanwhile Jasper tries to make her way towards her mate and gemlings.





	1. Chapter 1

Jasper was fast asleep in her bed when she felt someone shaking her. She knew it was just Peridot since Lapis was in her cell, but she still wasn't waking up unless it was important like Yellow Diamond wanted her. The shaking continued though Jasper remain laying there in her bed. Peridot got annoyed with her and shocked her gently, jolting her up right away. She gave Peridot a dirty look as she sat up in bed. "You so lucky you weren't anybody else. Otherwise I would have beaten the crap out of you."

"We're nearing earth soon," Peridot informed her. "Are you ready for what we might find there?"

"In a way," said Jasper.

To be honest, she was more looking forward to fighting Rose Quartz although according to the lapis she wasn't there but a mixed breed of gem and human with a rose quartz gem was. Could it really be her just transformed or did she really breed with a human? She'd have to see this for herself once they got there. It wasn't unknown for gems to breed at least with each other anyways though even that was uncommon. Heck she and Peridot were expecting gems of their own, even if Peridot had been hesitant at the idea of having them due to how painfully she had thought it would be because of her small size. Where did the quartz go? Despite their eggs not being there just yet, she would be her children's side if they needed her yet and she expected the same of Rose Quartz though neither Lapis or Peridot had seen any sign of the quartz except the half-breed who had her gem.

"There's no way they'll be able to handle us." said Peridot with a smirk on her face. "I've seen the four of them and shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"We?" She raised a brow at the shorter gem. Peridot wasn't made to be a fighter given how she was supposed to be a technician.

"You know what I meant," said Peridot. "I was talking about mostly you doing your thing and me using the ship if needed."

"Whatever you say, Peridot," Jasper got up and stretched.

Peridot frowned for a moment before she told her that she'd better check to make sure the gem was still where she was supposed to be. Jasper saw no reason for the gem to check up on the blue gem but allowed her to anyway contributing it to her being bored. However Peridot wasn't doing it for the reason Jasper thought. She was really making the journey there to think about what would happen. Although she was confident in her lover's abilities, she was more concerned about if there were more gems than the ones already there or at least hiding the other quartz gem. If there were only the gems Lapis reported on then they wouldn't have trouble dealing with them given the state of the gems. The pearl wasn't made for fighting, the amethyst one might be less trouble given how she was clearly defective, and the unknown gem...Peridot wasn't so sure about her. She hadn't seen her type of gem before so she must be some kind of fusion or rare type of gem. Either way, she was sure Jasper could take them and if she couldn't, she'd be able to use the ship to help out even if Jasper didn't want her to.

"This better not be some sort of trap, Lapis," said Peridot giving the gem a cold look as the blue haired gem was hugging her knees to her chest. "If it is, I'll personally shatter you."

Lapis didn't respond as she looked away from the gem. Peridot frowned at the gem and thought about banging on the window, but went against it. She went back up to the front where Jasper now was staring at the nearing planet. "What are you doing up here?"

" I got a little bored," she yawned. "Thought I might come up here and stick around."

"Well can you move? I need to put in the coordinates for the ship to land."

"Just sit in my lap."

"Your lap?"

"Come on. You've sat in it a million times before."

"What if Lapis..."

"Don't be so silly, Peridot. She's way back there. What are you worrying about?" Peridot just climbed into Jasper's lap without answering with both knowing why she had hesitated to do so. If the gem knew about their relationship, she might use it as a way to bring them down. There was no way to that she could be able to see them from the other section of the ship being like this. Peridot got into the larger gem's lap fairly easy and started deciding on a place to land. Going near their base seemed like the best idea, but Jasper wanted to surprise the traitors.

'Hopefully they don't expect us,' thought Peridot right before she felt something tickling her face and Jasper resting her chin on her shoulder. "Jasper, can you please not do that?"

"Do what?"

"Distract me with your hair," said Peridot moving the older gem's hair out of her face. "There's so much of it! Can't you just cut it or at least tie it back?"

"You weren't complaining last night," smirked Jasper as she nuzzled the gem making her blush. "I thought you were about to tear my hair out the way you were grabbing it."

"H-hey! Don't talk like that!"

"It's the truth, Peri," She purred in her ear. "How about we get one more session in before..."

Peridot squeaked when she felt Jasper kissing on her neck and rubbing the inside of her thigh. The green gem was stuck between guiding the ship and following Jasper into the back for privacy. Then again there wasn't anyone else on the ship except them and Lapis was in a completely different section. Unsurprisingly, Jasper was thinking this too as she began to passionately making out with Peridot on the spot and the younger gem gave into it.

* * *

 

Later Peridot had just finished cleaning herself off when she noticed that the blue gem was just staring into space. She had gone by just like any other day when she heard Lapis speak. "You two just love torturing people, don't you?"

"I don't remember doing anything to you, Lapis Lazuli," said Peridot a little surprised that the gem spoke to her. Usually when the two talked, Peridot was the one who engaged in conversation just for info on the Crystal Gems while Lapis would answer and had long ago stopped asking what was going to happen after the mission or when she could go home.

"I heard you making someone scream," said Lapis glaring at the gem.

At first she had no idea what the gem was talking about until she realized that the screaming she heard was from _her_. She had quickly turned her head to avoid being seen embarrassed and giving away it had been her voice yelling like that. "Don't worry about it, Lapis. Just be thankful it wasn't you."

Peridot didn't wait to hear what Lapis said if she even bothered responding. Lapis had heard her screaming in pleasure that whole time even with the distance between her and the piloting controls. Thank goodness they hadn't been seen by her. That was the only upside to this embarrassing mess. She made a mental note to avoid having sex with her mate in any place that wasn't behind closed doors.

* * *

When they had finally arrived on earth and came across the Crystal Gems, things did indeed go down from there despite Peridot thinking they could easily bring back the gems. She had no clue where Jasper was but had a feeling that the Crystal Gems might have her while the younger gem had escaped out of the ship using an escape pod. She had tried waiting for Jasper to join her, but she had gotten the message from her to get out while she still could. The green gem tried using her radio to tell her she wasn't going anywhere without her, but she hadn't answered. Though she didn't want to leave her behind, when she saw the Crystal Gems coming towards her, most likely to bubble her, she jumped into the pod and sent herself towards Earth.

After climbing out of the pod, Peridot tried figuring out what she needed to do first. Her first plan was to find Jasper and make sure she was okay. She was pretty sure Yellow Diamond would be angry that this was her first priority, but she wasn't here now was she? Peridot was glad that her leader wasn't there to hear her say that since surely the diamond would wring her neck for doing so. Now how to locate her was the problem. The two of them were using radios though she didn't know if Jasper lost her's as Peridot's was located in her limb enhancer for her left arm. She had tried to contact the older gem with it, but nothing happened. She had tried for what seemed like a few hours but still nothing happened.

She eventually got out of her pod to go try for the galaxy warp station located on this planet. If she could fix up the warp stations, she could bring back up and get back Jasper. But what if they shattered her? She was going to shatter every one of them if they had dared hurt her Jasper in any way. Of course this was pretty stupid thing for Peridot to say since she wasn't a fighting gem like her mate and the worse she could do was probably hit one of them and even that probably wouldn't hurt them. Maybe she could take on that little one...wait she was a quartz and even the defective ones could prove to be a challenge for a peridot her size. Then what about that half-bred one? Maybe he would do. Either way they were going to regret messing with her in some way or form.

Not only was she worried about Jasper, but she was also worried about their eggs that Jasper was yet to lay. Jasper was carrying most of their eggs while Peridot, to her knowledge, only carried one. She feared that if they truly did shatter her, she'd be losing her mate and eggs. If she was bubbled, the eggs would survive until Peridot unbubbled Jasper and she laid her geodes. If Jasper was truly gone, at least she still had her egg with her. Peridot knew it wouldn't be too long before she had to have her egg so she had to find shelter where she could have it. She'd be vulnerable to any wild animals and the Crystal Gems out in the forest she was in especially without protection or Jasper. As she headed to the warp pads to repair them, she could only hope she didn't get seen by the Crystal Gems while she was there. Hopefully the place was abandoned by them so she could get to work in peace.


	2. Chapter 2

When the green gem had stumbled across the warp pads, she immediately started on them with what little tools she had on hand. Well at least what she had stored in her enhancers. The pads were pretty damaged and beyond repairing much to her annoyance. It looked like the clods had damaged it long ago and had made sure that even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to fix it. At least that's what Peridot determined. So there was no way she could activate them at all much to her annoyance. The only one that did work was one to an abandoned colony ship where she had and then hid her geode. She figured it would be a good place to place it until she was able to get back to the Homeworld. But what if the geode started cracking while she was away? She couldn't leave the peridot or jasper gem alone. What if they found her? They might mimic their leader and shatter her gem since they clearly weren't big fans of homeworld gems. She had to get this thing working before her geode hatched. Too bad the stupid thing wouldn't function even after hours of tinkering with it.

"Come on, you stupid thing!"She said as she pounded the device with her fist. "We need to get back home!"

Was she actually stuck here on this planet? She was unfamiliar with this planet and the clods knew that. She needed to contact her diamond through different means and fast. The nearby communication hub was broken but unlike the warp pads, she could easily fix it up. Maybe not all the way, but at least get it working long enough to try contacting Yellow Diamond. It took her a few hours to get it working but when she did, she immediately sent out a message in hopes that she'd get help soon. When the message was sent, all she had to do was wait. But what about Jasper? The only ones who would possibly know where her mate was were the Crystal Gems and she knew they weren't going to tell her about Jasper. She'd have to find the older gem on her own but she still hadn't figured out how to. She sat down on one of the non-functioning warp pads and used making a plan using her holographic map.

"Perhaps I should start checking around the..." Peridot was cut off by the beeping coming from a device she had set up for notifying any presence of any gems.

She switched over on her hologram to read that there were 5 gems nearby. If it had just been one of them, she would have ran over to it just in case that it was Jasper. However given the number, she knew it was the Crystal Gems and they were probably observing her. Not wanting to be caught, Peridot ran over to the working warp pad and teleported herself to the ship to hide. She made sure to lock off some of the rooms before going further into the ship to look for parts. None of the parts were salvageable and the ones that were wouldn't help with the warp pad she needed to be working. She picked up a large piece of blue cloth and decided it would be the best thing to take with her to keep her and Jasper's child warm just in case. Just as she began to store it, she heard the Crystal Gems breaking through the wall. Well at least the fusion did.

Peridot blasted at them and they leapt out of the way. Peridot clutched the cloth she found and began to fly away with the help of her helicopter fingers when the one named Steven grabbed her foot. "Let me go, you little clod!"

The stubborn little thing refused to let go of her so she pulled out her destabilizer and shocked him with it. He refused to let go even then so she had no choice but to abandon her leg's limb enhancer foot leaving her without it and so she escaped. It wasn't until she was gone for a few minutes was when she realized that her egg was where they were. Without even thinking, she headed back not caring if they caught her. When she peeked through the hole in the ceiling, she saw that they had all seemingly left. She went back to the spot where she had hidden the geode and found it gone. Her eyes widened in horror and she began to frantically search for her egg in case she had somehow forgotten where she had truly placed it. When she had searched every inch of the ship, she came to the realization that her geode was gone, the only thing she had left of Jasper. She didn't care if they outnumbered her. She needed her geode back.

Later that night, Peridot approached their base and snuck inside of the house to search for Steven. When she found him, he was sleeping soundly. Good. She carefully looked through his room for any signs of her geode. When she found nothing, she used her tractor beam via her limb enhancers and carried him to the homeworld warp. When they arrived, she shook him awake. Before a groggy Steven could ask what was going on, she grabbed him by the scuff of his pjs and pointed at the warp pad.

"Listen, brat. I need you to fix this like you fixed what's her face's gemstone now or so help me I'll break you!" She yelled at him. Steven barely seemed to register what was happening so Peridot shoved him towards it. "Go on. Heal it!"

Steven hesitated for some reason which irritated Peridot that he was taking his time. He licked his hand and it on the the pad but nothing happened. "It's not working."

"What?" Peridot got on the pad. "Try again."

It repeated the action but nothing happened. Peridot panicked at the fact that the pad wasn't working thus crushing any hope to get home and get help for Jasper. "No no no! This can't be happening! We're going to be die here on this stupid planet! Oh no! No no no no no...!"

"Hey, Earth isn't that bad," said Steven touching the gem's arm. "There's a lot of good things if you give a chance."

"Shut up, you ignorant fool!" She said snatching her arm from him. "First you idiots took my egg and now...now...now you're trying to doom me with the rest of you people!"

"Your egg?" Steven gave her a confused look as she watched the gem ruffle her hair in frustration as tears ran down her face. Before Steven could question her about what she had just said, the Crystal Gems showed up using the warp pad.

Peridot shoved Steven out of the way and blasted at the gems without even thinking. She didn't care if she shattered them before getting any info on Jasper. She was much too angry about not being able to go home and her missing geode to act smartly. She ended up getting putting up a pretty good fight until she tripped over one of the warp pads and was poofed by Garnet and bubbled.

* * *

When she woke up, she found herself in a room full of differently colored bubbles with gem stones inside of them and beside her was Steven standing above her. Still angry, she lunged at the half-gem but he was able to grab her hands as she went for his face. "You clod! You're..."

Peridot stopped as she stared at her hands. Her limb enhancers were gone! It had been a while since she had seen her real hands, she thought as she curiously stared at them for a minute. When she realized that the half gem was staring at her, she took her wrists from him and asked him where she was.

"You're in the temple," said Steven as Peridot took a look around. "I unbubbled you."

"You set me free? But why?" She said giving him a curious look.

"You mentioned something about an egg and something about the earth being doomed."

Peridot hesitated to answer him but came to the realization that maybe he could help her get back the geode. "It's mine and um Jasper's. I just had that one and if you did anything to our egg, I'll hurt you worst than I did your friends."

"You didn't hit any of them," the half gem pointed out.

"Shut up!" She said glad Jasper wasn't around to hear that her aim was that bad. "Anyways, I need it back now before it hatches! Where'd you put it?"

"It's in my room," said Steven. "I..."

"Show me now!" she said impatiently as she grabbed his arm. Steven brought Peridot up to his room where he brought out the dimly glowing geode. She grabbed it from Steven and squeezed it as she kissed her egg. She picked up the rather large geode and started to leave when she realized she couldn't just walk out the house with it in her hands. What if the others saw her? She'd have to take her chances. She scurried off with the geode with Steven right behind her. Just as she opened up the door, she gave Steven a nasty look. "Where do **_you_ ** think **_you're_ ** going?"

"I wanted to see make sure you get to where you're going safely."

"I don't believe you. You're trying to poof me again when my back is turned!" She accused him as she held her geode tightly. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because if I wanted you poofed, don't you think I'd have let you stay in the burning room?"

Peridot paused for a minute realizing he was right. Her eyes shifted outside for a minute before pushing Steven back inside and slowly closing the door. "I'll just stay here for tonight. Its dark out and I don't want to drop her."

Steven allowed Peridot to stay though she insisted on being in a more private room and picked the bathroom. Steven offered to keep her company but she quickly declined his offer. When he had left, she locked the door and set herself up in the bathtub. She wrapped a towel around her egg and held it tightly. When she was sure the coast was clear, she was leaving out the bathroom window and heading to a new location.


	3. Chapter 3

Jasper was leagues under the sea fused as Malachite and struggling to get free from Lapis. The gem was persistent to keep her away from Steven, but at the moment the mini Rose was the last thing she was thing she was thinking about. She needed to get out of this fusion now to get back to her mate. Peridot was all alone and without protection. What if the Crystal Gems caught and bubbled her or worse yet shattered her? Peridot's egg was ready to come out of her and she wanted to be there for her as well as protect her until a ship arrived and then she could send both of them home while she dealt with the Crystal Gems and Rose.

"Steven, you have to go!" She heard Lapis say. "I have to concentrate on her!"

Who was she talking to? She then realized she was talking to the brat. While she was distracted with him, she quickly took brief control and tried to get to the mutt. She'd make him tell her what he had done to Peridot or if he had seen her. Too distracted by him, she found herself being pulled back as Lapis was back in control. She clinched her fists in anger and then clawed at her face which Malachite also did. Lapis tried restraining their hands but not before Jasper yanked on her hair and managed to poke one of Lapis's eyes. For everyday they were held together, the older gem was starting to be more in control for longer periods whenever Lapis lost control. If this kept up, Jasper was going to fully control Malachite and find Steven. She tried telling herself that they had to stay fused but deep down she knew she wasn't going to be able to do this forever and she knew Jasper also knew this herself.

* * *

Meanwhile Peridot was still inside of the bathroom and was thinking about her mate. She had wanted to ask Steven about the location of her mate, but she couldn't help but to think that she may be pushing her luck by asking about her. If she was bubbled too, she was probably not unbubbled due to possibly being considered a threat compared to Peridot who was much smaller and without her enhancers. Where were her enhancers anyways? Knowing them, they had them stored somewhere. She couldn't go looking for them now without leaving behind her egg.

"Perhaps I can go outside and..." Peridot's thoughts were interrupted by knocking on the door.

"Peridot, are you still in there?" asked Steven. "It's me, Steven."

Peridot didn't answer. Maybe if she didn't talk or make any noises, he would think she was gone. Then she heard voices other than Steven's. It was those traitors! She heard the pearl mention ask the younger gem if he was sure she was still in there while the amethyst wanted to break the door down. The fusion made a good point that it would spook her and make her run off. Given how small the window was above the toilet, she wasn't going to be able to slip out with her egg. Peridot searched frantically for another exit. How about that the large white thing with water in it? It looked like some kind of portal. Grabbing her egg, she got into the toilet and pushed down the lever. All that happened was that the toilet overflowed and Peridot was getting wet.

"I've tried that before and it doesn't work like that," she heard the amethyst say outside of the door.

Peridot put her egg down on the floor and attempted to get out of the toilet only to get her foot stuck. Once she had pulled it out and tried to get back in the tub, she slipped and hit her head against the toilet. She cried out in pain and rubbed her head.

"Ow that hurt!" Peridot whimpered.

"Are you okay in there?" Steven yelled from the other side.

"I'm fine! Go away!" Peridot crawled back into the tub and held her egg tightly.

"We're not going to hurt you!"

"I find that hard to believe," said Peridot. "Why don't you leave me alone?"

"You mentioned something about danger."

"You mean the Cluster?" asked Peridot. How did they not know about it? She wondered if she should say anything in detail about it. No they didn't need to know a thing. She doubted even if she told them, they'd let her go. The fusion told her they wouldn't do anything to her but Peridot didn't believe it. She heard low talking and then heard her say that they wouldn't hurt her egg either.

Peridot chose not to answer and waited to see what would happen next. She heard footsteps leaving the hallway and then she knew she was alone with her geode. She hoped it didn't hatch at the moment. What if it more than one inside of it? Considering the size, it very well could be. If it did hatch, she could then climb out of the window with her or them. But then where could she go?

The gem sat inside of the tub for a while before she heard knocking. "What?"

"I need to come in."

"Go away."

"I have something you want."

Peridot came near the door. "What is it?"

"One of your feet." Periot thought for a moment. "Which foot?"

"Left."

Peridot opened the door for Steven to come inside. She snatched her limb enhancer from him and opened up the compartment only to find it empty. No that had been the other foot that had it in there. As Steven was about to brush his teeth, Peridot asked about her other limb enhancers.

"Oh we kind of threw those away."

"Where?"

"In the ocean." Peridot's eyes widened and she hit him out of anger. "Ow! What was that for?"

"My notes were in there and so was Jasper's hair!" The green gem had a lock of her mate's hair inside of her right leg to make up for her lover's absence whenever Jasper went off world. She needed it even more now that she had no clue where she was or even if she would ever see her again. And it wouldn't hurt to introduce her unhatched young to her other parent's scent just in case. She couldn't believe those clods threw her stuff away but kept one. It was liked they planned to bribe her.

"Why would you keep her hair?"

"That's none of your business." The older gem noticed Steven looking over at her egg. "You know I'm surprised you all didn't smash it. Do you even know what's inside it?"

"No, but when you called it your egg..."

"I meant it when I said it was mine. Jasper is my mate and the geode is ours which means there's a peridot or jasper inside, though the latter probably isn't going to happen." She explained. "Jasper hasn't laid her's yet. At least I don't think she has. You know where she is, don't you?"

"She's with Lapis. They fused and..."

"They what?!" On the homeworld, fusing wasn't a natural thing and when it was done, it was done with other gems of your kind. Jaspers fused with Jaspers, Amethysts with Amethysts, Rubies with Rubies, and so on. Even then it wasn't done if it wasn't necessary. Why had Jasper fused Lapis? The older gem didn't like either of them so there had to be a reason why they teamed up. It was probably to fight the Crystal Gems. Now that she thought about it, if that had happened why were the Crystal Gems still around? "Jasper wouldn't fuse with anyone. We don't even fuse."

"She was trying to use Lapis to form Malachite to attack us, but Lapis took over and dragged her into the ocean," Noticing the horror on the older gem's face, he quickly added, "They're okay though."

"She's under the water where that maniac is!" She shouted at him. "She'll hurt them!"

"I'm sure Lapis wouldn't..."

"You don't know that!" Peridot began panicking over her mate and their eggs. Lapis didn't like either of them and wouldn't hesitate to harm their eggs.

"Calm down, Peridot," He said laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay."

"No it isn't!" Peridot sobbed. First losing her mate and their ship, then her being stuck on Earth, and now the cluster was probably going to kill them all as she didn't have anyone to help out with doing something about it. "I hate this stupid planet. Nothing's gone right since I've been here!"

Steven thought for a minute. "Peridot, I can talk to them for you."

"You...you will?" She looked up at the younger gem. "How?"

"I've been able to see her in my sleep so maybe if I try hard enough to see her again, I can tell Lapis not to hurt your eggs." Steven hadn't mentioned anything about Jasper for a reason. For the moment, Jasper was still pretty much a threat in his guardians and Lapis's eyes. He knew there was bound to be some good in her though despite whatever hostility she had towards him. If she could see him as more than Rose Quartz, maybe they could get along though Pearl said otherwise.

"Please do it and if you could please tell Jasper I love her, okay?" Steven nodded. Peridot thought for a minute before saying, "Okay, I'll tell you about the Cluster...but only if you help me with it."

Steven agreed, happy that Peridot was starting to open up to him though he wished it had extended to the other gems. Whatever the Cluster was, the others would be able to help.


	4. Chapter 4

Peridot wasn't sure if Steven would be able to somehow communicate with Lapis but she wasn't a Rose Quartz so maybe it was an ability he had possessed. Peridot hoped he would be able to do so. If he did, she'd happily help protect Steven from her diamond by saying no other gems where located on Earth and then leaving all of them alone. As long as her mate and eggs were okay, she didn't care. The older gem stayed inside of the bathroom until morning when they came back to the door. She knew what they wanted before they even spoke. She knew Steven had told them about the Cluster and she knew they wanted to know more about it, but she wasn't giving them what they wanted. She didn't need any of them. Besides the only reason she trusted Steven was because he freed her and promised to try getting Lapis to not harm their eggs.

"Open the door, Peridot," said the fusion from outside the door. "We're not here to harm you. We just want to know about the Cluster."

"NO." She said firmly. "Just because Steven didn't hurt me doesn't me you all won't."

"Is it like a big hunk of granola?" asked Amethyst.

"A what?" What was granola? Must be something native to earth.

"I'm sure it's not granola," said Pearl to Amethyst. "Now Peridot, I'm sure we can reach some sort of agreement. Perhaps a trade is in order?"

A trade huh? Steven had given her one of her limb enhancers and she doubted any of them may have saved any of the others. "As much as I would love to give you information on it in exchange for something, I CAN'T BECAUSE YOU CLODS THREW AWAY MY LIMB ENHANCERS! SO NO I WON'T GIVE YOU ANYTHING EXCEPT THE EMPTY AIR BETWEEN US SO HA!"

"She can't stay in there forever," said Pearl sounding quite sure of herself. "Sooner or later she'll give in if that Cluster is that big of a problem."

She heard the group decide to head off to go find out more about the Cluster themselves and left Steven to look after her. When Steven gave protest, Pearl pointed out that she was harmless without her limb enhancers. As if she knew was she was capable of. She should have taken that insult with a grain of salt given how it was from a pearl of all things, but that didn't stop her from being insulted and wanting to put her in her place! However given how tiny she was without her enhancers and the fact that she was outnumbered, she didn't stand a chance. When they had gone, Steven told her it was okay to come out but she stayed where she was. They could be hiding somewhere. She wasn't stupid. Besides, the egg was close to hatching in at any time. She couldn't have them separate her and her peridot.

"You hold on, if you can hear me." she whispered to her geode. "I'll find a way to get us back to Jasper."

Then it moved and she began to panic about it. Was it already time? Peridot tried thinking about what she should do now. 'Wait a minute, just take a deep breath.' She took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. 'Then be patient and wait for her to make her way out. It's just like when you're waiting for the naturally made gems to come out. She'll be fine.'

Peridot sat back and gave the egg some space as it began to hatch. She wished Jasper could have been hear to see their gem hatching. Hopefully she would be able to see the others when it was time. The egg wiggled a bit but stopped moving after a few minutes. Every now and then the egg would move and crack slightly, but nothing else happened. It took around an hour but soon the egg got a huge crack in it and the gem began to open the geode. Seconds later a jasper tumbled out of the geode and landed into her mother's arms. She was a little more than half her size and looked like her other parent, orange and all.

"You're a big one aren't you?" cooed Peridot at her gemling. The Jasper looked up at her mother and yanked on her hair, hard. "OW! Hey stop pulling on my hair! I said stop it!" She tried taking her hand off of her hair, but she had a tight grip. She was going to tear her hair out with how hard she was doing it. "Come on, Jasper! Quit it already before you..."

Peridot screamed in pain when her gemling ripped a chunk of her hair out of her head. The gem just stared at her mother as she held her head where her hair was gone. She stared for a few seconds before climbing out of the tub and made her away towards the door. She tried reaching for the door knob but found herself unable to open it as she was much too short to reach the door. Peridot got up and headed over to her child to prevent her from going outside.

"No you can't go out there," She whispered to her. "There's danger out there and...let go! You're pulling my hair again!"

The jasper didn't seem to care as she continued yanking on her hair until Peridot let her go. She then began to do a spinning dash and broke through the door of the bathroom and headed to right. Peridot chased after her into Steven's room. She had broken Steven's bed and was now bouncing on his gamecube. Make that his now destroyed gamecube. She was midair when Peridot grabbed her and tried taking her (aka dragging her) back to the bathroom. She was already proving to be a handful and she was just born. Was it because she was a jasper? It'd make some sense. She wished she had her limb enhancers to trap her in a beam until she could get her into some kind of pen since heading to the ship wasn't an option.

"What am I going to do with you, Jasper?" She sighed as she stroked her gemling's soft beige hair. She seemed to like it as she made what sounded like purring noises. She petted her for a while until she heard a loud scream in the house. Oh no Steven had found his things destroyed.

"Steven, what's wrong?" It was the Pearl's voice as she heard footsteps going down the hall. Peridot quickly headed out towards the window but Jasper refused to move. She was too busy playing in the toilet. "Oh my gosh! Peridot!"

"Oh no!" Peridot gulped in fear. They were going to break down the door this time and bubble her and Jasper. They had to go now! "We have to get out of here!"

Jasper seemed to understand her as she did her spin dash again and escaped out of the wall of the bathroom and down the beach. Peridot took off after her as far as her little legs could carry her. Jasper eventually stopped a ways away down the beach and waited for her mother to catch up.

"You shouldn't go running off without me, Jasper." Peridot lectured the younger gem. "Now come before they catch up."

Peridot got Jasper to climb on her back and began to run away from the temple. Little did she know that the Crystal Gems were on her heels. Amethyst landed right in front of her her which made her stop right on the spot. She started to turn to a different direction on to step into Garnet. Backing up she only ended up bumping into Pearl.

'Don't show fear! That way they can't get cocky and...' Peridot felt her child shivering and she wasn't sure if it was from excitement, fear, or angry?

"Explain why you destroyed our house!" Pearl demanded poking her in the forehead or rather her visor.

"She won't be much trouble she said," Amethyst mocked Pearl. "She's harmless without her enchancers, Steven. She'll probably just stay in the bathroom and hide. Doesn't seem so harmless to me, Pearl."

"Oh hush you...OW!" Pearl cried out in pain when Jasper crawled down and bit her arm. Peridot didn't try hiding a look of pride when her young bit the older gem and refused to let go.

'Yes good one, Jasper!' She grinned. Then again she shouldn't let her bite any of them even though they deserved it. She made a move to grab the gem before the other two could and pulled her off herself.

"Aren't you a little to old for such tactics?" Pearl asked rubbing her arm. "Especially childish ones."

"Man she bit you good," observed Amethyst causing Pearl to give a dirty look.

Jasper attempted to get back to Pearl with the older gem attempting keep her held back. She was strong for something so small and half peridot. Yeah she was Jasper's child. She wondered why she bit Pearl. Was it to protect her mother? She noticed the fusion staring at them which made her hold her tightly and back away.

"She got smaller."

"Don't you dare touch her!" Peridot held her away from the large gem.

"The whole small and cute thing won't work on us. Trust me I tried it on her." Amethyst gestured towards Pearl.

"That's because you weren't cute in the first place," smirked Pearl. She cleared her throat and gave them a stern look. "Cut the act, Jasper. I don't know where you got the idea that being small does you any favors. You're still Jasper and considering all the stuff you've done..."

"Wait!" All of them turned to see Steven running up the beach carrying the broken up geode. "Look."

"What's this?" Pearl was handed one of the pieces and examined it. "It's kind of heavy and it looks recently broken. What is this?"

"It belonged to Peridot. I think she may have some out of there." She pointed at the little jasper.

"Her?" The Crystal Gems stared at the small gem. "What makes you think that?"

"Remember when I told you that Peridot had an egg with her? This is it."

"That doesn't look like any kind of egg to me. I thought it was just a cool looking rock I let Steven have." said Amethyst running her hand over the geode.

"It's because I'm a gem duh," said Peridot.

"Wait we can lay eggs?" Amethyst looked up at Garnet and Pearl. "What are we, birds?"

Pearl looked over the jasper who had started to settle down once Peridot started petting her head which she seemed to like. "Why would you carry around something like that anyways?"

'I suppose I have to tell them.' Just as she opened up her mouth to tell her about her and Jasper, Steven spoke up for her. He quickly explained that the jasper was Jasper and Peridot's. The fusion seemed to flinch for a second at the news but said nothing. Pearl gave a look of concern at the fusion but she replied she, or rather they, were fine.

"So you had this geode as in the two of you produced this jasper together?" asked Garnet.

"Yes." she admitted. Garnet crossed her arms and appeared to be thinking their situation over.

"We should go back to the temple and discuss this." said Garnet after a while. Peridot knew she couldn't run even with a head start so she begrudgingly followed them back while her daughter stayed on her back instead of walking. She was rather heavy and Peridot didn't want to carry her but she didn't want to ask any of the others if they could carry her. She had already bitten Pearl and there was no telling how she'd react to the others.

Once back to the temple, she was taken back to the burning room where Peridot and Jasper were inside with Steven who was supposed to keep her eye on the two of them. The green gem kept the younger gem in her lap and petted her hair. She really wished that she could find out what they were saying and what they were planning to do to them.

"How is she doing?" asked Steven attempting to make conversation with the scared gem. He had sat down beside her but at a reasonable distance away from the little gem.

"She's fine. She likes it when I pet her like this."

"Could I?"

"Sure but don't blame me if she bites you." Steven scooted a little closer and began petting the gem. She opened an eye at Steven, but she didn't do anything and just purred a little. "She's like a little kitten except she's bigger and a gem."

"What do you think they're saying in there?"

"I don't know. They wouldn't hurt her though..."

"...but they'll sure enough do something to me."

"No way. I'll talk to them if I have to. She already doesn't have her other mom." Steven understood what would be the gem's situation if anything happened to either Peridot or Jasper or both. He had lost his mother since she had given up her physical form for him and even though he hadn't met her, he still wanted to meet her. There was also the case that if he had ever lost his father, the only parent he had known, he'd be pretty sad. He wouldn't want Jasper to go through the same thing.

Peridot was glad he understood, but she knew they wouldn't. There was a bit of silence before Steven thought of something. "My mom was a gem and my dad's a human. How come when she had me, she lose her physical form and you and Jasper didn't?"

"Jasper and I were able to pass on our genetic code down to our young without giving up our forms because we're gems," explained Peridot putting it in simple terms. "Your parents are of two different species unlike us."

"So gems can have children together. How come nobody ever told me?"

"Maybe because you're half human so why bring it up? Besides even on the homeworld it doesn't happen often. It isn't because we can't. Its more to due with the fact that sometimes we need gems battle ready and there isn't much time for some of us to care for little ones. That and some gems just have trouble doing so especially when it comes to gems that aren't the same as another like a quartz can take more time reproducing with someone as small as me. Some just can't do it at all."

"Interesting." He wondered if Sapphire and Ruby ever tried.

Meanwhile in the living room, the four were discussing their situation with Peridot and her young.

"I can't believe we can just do that." said Amethyst. "I thought we were made in kindergartens."

"It does happen, but it's not common to make gems like that unlike on earth." said Sapphire as she ran her fingers over a piece of the geode.

"I've heard of them but I've never seen it until now." said Pearl who was doing the same. "I wonder how come we didn't notice she was pregnant like with Rose."

"I've seen a few gems have one, but never a peridot and a jasper together or any kind of quartz with another who wasn't a quartz. It's rather odd. As for not noticing, gems don't show because Rose had to form a womb for Steven."

"Do we really want them around?" said Ruby. "I don't feel comfortable having both of them around."

"Who?"

"Jasper and the other one. I don't trust either of them even if the other one was just born." confessed Ruby. "What's to say it might trick us into thinking she's so small and helpless only to try something when our backs are turned? You see how she bit Pearl."

"I bit Pearl a few times myself and a few others. She might have done it to just to protect herself or Peridot." said the purple gem.

"I obviously wasn't a threat but I guess I could have been since she doesn't know me." She wondered if Steven was getting along with the pair in the burning room. "That reminds me. I'd better go check in on the three of them."

Pearl went to the burning room and found the jasper in Steven's lap curled up in a ball while Peridot was telling him a story about the older Jasper. "...and then Jasper ripped the tail right off the thing and knocked it out with its own tail in one hit! It was amazing!"

"Whoa! That's so cool!" said Steven looking excited. "I wish I had seen it."

"I could show you a projection of it if you want."

"The two of you having fun in here?" said Pearl making the two jump. Jasper whimpered a little at the sudden movement but Steven's petting calmed her back down.

"Yeah. Peridot was just telling me about Jasper. Did you guess decide what to do yet?"

"Still talking. Are they behaving, Steven?"

"Not sure how we could act up," said Peridot rolling her eyes. "If you haven't noticed, he's a lot bigger than me. If he wanted he could throw me in that furnace or force me in a bubble if he wanted."

"Maybe we should get Garnet to bubble you just in case you do try something."

"Don't even try it, Pearl. You don't scare me."

"Whatever. Just stay here."

"Like I have a choice."

Pearl turned back and joined the others while Peridot went back to talking about her mate. As she excitedly told Steven about Jasper, unknown to him, the more she talked about the older gem, the more she started to miss the gem. Hopefully she would be see her again along with their remaining geodes.


	5. Chapter 5

When the gems were done, Pearl told the two they could come back into the living room so they could tell them their decision. Garnet told Peridot that as long as she told them about the cluster and fixed the giant hole in Steven's room. "You hear that, Peridot? You get to stay!"

"I heard that, but what I didn't hear was what happens to her!" She pointed towards Jasper who was on Steven's back running her fingers through Steven's poofy hair. "I'm not staying or saying anything until I know what happens to her."

"She can stay too, but you should make sure she doesn't go around making holes in the walls." said Garnet referring to the giant holes the gem had made going through the bathroom and then the one she made going into Steven's room.

"She couldn't help it. When a gem emerges, they tend to make holes."

"Didn't she come out of a geode?" asked Pearl.

"Well yes, but she couldn't open the door. She can't help it making a hole to get out of an area like a normal quartz would."

"She has a point." said Amethyst.

"Enough talking. We need to prepare a demonstration."

"On what?" asked Pearl.

"The cluster so you all can understand better." She turned to Steven. "I need something to demonstrate the cluster with. Do you have anything I could use?"

"Sure. It's in my room. Come on." When Steven and Peridot went into Steven's room, the short gem couldn't help but to admire the large hole Jasper had made. It was perfect. Her father would be proud.

Steven began working on a picture of the earth on the box while Peridot worked on what the cluster would possibly look like. Meanwhile Jasper watched her mother at work only to get bored after a while. She stood up and walked over to where Steven was. He smiled at her. "Wanna see something cool?"He crawled underneath the box. Jasper stared at the box for a minute and started to lift it up when Steven's arm poked out of the box with a green sock puppet he made on the hand. "Rawr! I'm gonna eat you, Jasper!"

Jasper squeaked in surprise and hid behind one of the other boxes. She peeked from around it, analyzed it, and then ran over toward it and chomped down on it. She pulled it off Steven's fingers and started to try tearing it apart when Steven stopped her.

"Wait a second, Jasper," He said once he managed to get away from her. She had only managed to tear off the left button eye and had stretched it a bit. "It's not a threat. See?"

He put it over his hand again and showed it to her. "Hello, Jasper."

She had an "O" shape with her mouth and started clapping at Steven's "trick". She pulled it off his hand and made it "talk". "Hello, Rose Quartz!"

"Actually my name is Steven," Steven pointed out. Despite his gem stone being so, his mother's name tended to carry a bad connotation. Besides he was rather fond of his name and it was his own at that.

"Hello, Steven," She corrected herself.

Steven clapped for her. "Good job, Jasper."

"What are you two doing over here?" Peridot came over to the two of them. Jasper showed Peridot the sock puppet.

"What's this thing?" Jasper made the puppet "bite" Peridot's nose. "That's nice Jasper. Now come on, you two."

"Okay. Lemme just fix its eye," Steven quickly glued the eye back before helping Peridot set up in the living room. They sat the model of the Cluster to the side and the box as well. The half gem gave her a chair to stand in though he didn't have a pointer for her to use so he just gave her a fly swatter.

Steven got the Crystal Gems in the living room and they took a seat on the couch. "Ok, Crystal Gems. Since I don't have a choice in the matter, I'll now tell you about the Cluster. Steven, bring it in here."

Steven shuffled into the room wearing the box with the picture of the Earth on the front. Peridot smacked the box with the flyswatter. "This is the Earth as you are aware aware of. At the center of the Earth lays the cluster. Turn."

Steven turned the box around revealing the Earth showing the core and the cluster. The green gem pointed at the cluster. "This is the Cluster. A massive, artificial fusion composed of millions of Gem shards. It has laid dormant for thousands of years within this planet's crust. When this Gem activates and takes its form, the result will be catastrophic."

Steven made the box shake for a few seconds before sticking his arm out of the box and started making snaring noises. The smaller gem hit the puppet. "That's not the Cluster, Steven. It won't look anything like that. Where's the model I made?"

"I thought you had it," He said through the puppet.

"I don't have it either...oh no!" Peridot jumped off the chair to find Jasper. When she did, Jasper had already eaten the play doe model and was finishing it off. Seeing her mother, she held out the last piece. "My model...I guess I should have made sure I had it."

Jasper took the last piece back and ate it while her mother went back to the living room. "Forget about the model. The point is we must do something about the Cluster before it's too late."

"But how? We'll need to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth, it'll have to-" began Pearl. Peridot quickly interrupted her.

"I wasn't done talking. Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted, what we need is to build some sort of machine to take us to the center of the Earth," Pearl glared at the younger gem. "It'll need to withstand up to 360 gigapascals of pressure and temperatures of 9800 degrees."

"Well, we mustn't waste time. We need to start finding parts for this machine immediately." said Pearl.

"Obviously," said Peridot. "I think we may be able to use some materials from inside of the house. Jasper."

Jasper went into the kitchen and a crash could be heard. A few seconds later she had dragged the tv from Steven's room into the living room and then presented her mother with the cord phone. Before Peridot could make for the microwave, Steven quickly pointed out there were other materials they could use besides the things in the house. He then brought everyone to his father's barn.

"All right. What we have here in the barn should be adequate enough for us to get started," said Pearl. "First, I recommend we organize the component types and assemble a rough blueprint based off what we have available."

Pearl flipped the board to find that Steven had already drawn a picture of a drill on the front of it. "It's a nice drawing, Steven, but it won't look like this."

Meanwhile Peridot picked up the piece of chalk and looked over it. "Seems to be adequate enough for such a primitive object. Thank you. That'll be all."

Steven and Pearl looked confused. Did Peridot want them to leave or what? When Pearl didn't leave, Peridot just stared at her in equal confusion. What part of 'You can go' didn't she understand? She clapped her hands. "I said you can go. You know, you can go do whatever you want until I need you again. Go! Shoo!"

The smaller gem couldn't understand why Pearl was still around. Maybe she only obeyed her master or maybe there was a certain command she had to say in order for her to obey. She looked over at Steven. "How do you make her leave?"

"Excuse me, but I'm not going anywhere," Pearl frowned at her.

"Yeah! She's gonna help us build the drill," grinned Steven. "Pearl's really good at building stuff. It'll be built twice as fast. Like my dad says, two heads are better than one."

That made Peridot laugh a little bit. A pearl being able to build something as complicated as a drill? That was hilarious. "Next thing you know you'll be tell me that she can dismantle it as well."

"Why's that so hard to believe?"

"Pearls aren't made to work with technology like me. They're just made to stand around looking nice, hold your stuff, and following orders. Besides that, they don't do much."

"That's enough, Peridot," spoke up Pearl. "If we're working together, you're going to have to listen to what I have to say."

Peridot just laughed at her again, further angering the older gem. "Did you teach her to talk that way? That's cute."

"I still don't understand," said Steven.

"What do you mean? I guess you haven't been on the Homeworld before so I'll explain. Pearls are made to order servants. Mainly the higher ranked gems and gems who have done heroic things for the homeworld have them. There are hundreds on our Homeworld. If you ever go there someday, you're bound to see one doing what they're supposed to do."

Here Peridot glanced towards a furious Pearl. Meanwhile Steven was in awe there was more than one pearl. "There are more pearls?"

Pearl blushed. "Yes but..."

Peridot got behind and her began to examine the gem. She looked rather fancy for a pearl. She must have belonged to someone important she thought as she studied the texture of Pearl's sash. "You can tell she's quite fancy even for a pearl. Who do you belong to?"

"Nobody!" She snatched her sash out of the shorter gem's hands. She was getting really tired of Peridot's attitude towards her at the moment. She was starting to wish Steven had let her stay bubbled. Then again if she had stayed bubbled, they wouldn't know about the Cluster.

"Then you're a present to someone? An unclaimed gift prehaps?"

"I'm my own gem, thank you!" she snapped. "I do whatever I want and I don't follow anyone's orders unless I want to."

"Well in that case, you can be my pearl," The thought of owning one sounded appealing to her especially since peridots rarely owned any. Everyone back home would be so impressed with her owning one. Pearl was in pretty good condition and super fancy. Everyone would be so jealous! "Imagine that. A peridot with a pearl. I'll be the envy of all my fellow peridots."

"No you won't!" Pearl was close to punching the gem with how aggravated she was. Even though the attitude was to be expected seeing as Peridot was from the Homeworld which held such views, it still made her made Peridot was being so condescending towards her. "I didn't fight a thousand year just to start back taking orders from anyone! You're on our turf now. Don't forget that."

"Well I'm not taking orders from a PEARL!" argued Peridot. "I was made to do stuff like this. You were made to be someone's toy!"

"Whoa now!" Steven quickly got inbetween the two to stop a fight. "You're both really good at building things and you both want to stop the Cluster. Can't we just get along for that goal?"

"NO!" Both shouted.

"I'm as good at building things as you. Better, even!" said Pearl. She wasn't going to let Peridot talk down to her like that. She had the ability to build just like Peridot did though part of her knew there was a possibility that Peridot knew just a little bit more than her considering it was what she was designed for. However she knew she was capable of doing more than what she herself was designed to do as proven over the years. Yes, she could do even more than Peridot and perhaps even more than her. She was pretty good with Earth technology especially given how Peridot had barely been on earth for long.

"Name one thing!" said Peridot. She couldn't wait to hear this.

"Robots!" piped up Steven.

"Excuse me?" The green gem looked at Steven.

"Robots! You guys can build robots and compete against each other!"

"Like a contest?" asked Pearl.

"Yeah! Just to see who can build better."

Peridot thought about this for a moment. "I suppose that would be alright. What kind should we build?"

"Big ones! Like the ones you can ride!"

"Okay I can do that. I don't know about her though," She smirked at the taller gem who glared at her.

"You just watch, Peridot. I'll build it bigger, faster, and better than whatever you can come up with."

"We'll see." Both ran inside to work on their respective projects leaving Steven outside. Peridot came out a few minutes later carrying Jasper and gave her to Steven. "Hold her please."

She took off back into the barn. Steven looked down at Jasper. "Come on. We better let Peridot and Pearl finish up. In the meantime we can play together."

* * *

 

Jasper could feel the sharp pain rising in her lower area and it was getting to the point where it was too much to bare. She had been holding in her geodes for quite some time and being a fusion just made it worse for both of them. She knew Lapis could feel it and it became more obvious as the days passed that she wished for the pain to stop. From what Jasper could tell it was taking more of a toll on the blue gem than her. Jasper had thought about releasing the eggs into the water for a while, but knew if she did it would be through Malachite and thus Lapis would feel them leaving out of their shared body and she would investigate what came out of them.

'Keep them in, Jasper,' She told herself. 'It hurts but you know what'll happen if they come out. Hold them in as long as you can. You can do this!'

She wondered if Lapis could force them out. It was probably possible though Lapis didn't seem to have any idea about the geodes. If she did know, she was keeping quiet about it. Jasper tried keeping the pain down by laying down on her side or her back whenever she took back the short control she managed to get at times. It eased it a bit for a while and it was the only thing Lapis didn't mind Jasper doing when she took control. Now if only Lapis didn't mind unfusing.

One day while Malachite laid down and relaxed, both had been resting from fighting over control again when Jasper felt their pain lessen by a small amount and something come out of them. Malachite wanted to looked at what come out of her, but Jasper's side refused to look gaining suspicion from the shorter gem. Lapis forced Malachite to flip over on their other side which caused the fusion to cry out in pain and turn back to their back again. Jasper nearly sighed in relief when she did so She thought about using at least one of the limbs to look for the geode but decided against it. As a fusion, they felt what the other felt and saw what the other saw even when one of them was looking a different direction as Jasper did often. She just had to hope it didn't hatch anytime soon.


End file.
